The Surprising Statistics Behind Flash and Apple

Barence writes "PC Pro's Tom Arah has dug up some statistics that cast severe doubt over Steve Jobs' assertion that Flash is the technology of the past, and Apple's iOS is the platform of the future. He quibbles with Net Applications' assertion that iOS growth is 'massive,' considering that mobile accounts for only 2.6% of web views, and the iOS share stands at only 1.1%. By comparison, Silverlight penetration now stands at 51% while 97% of web surfers have Flash installed, according to Stat Owl. 'At least when Bill Gates held the web to ransom he had the decency to first establish a dominant position,' Arah claims. 'In Steve Jobs' case, with only 1.1% market share, the would-be emperor isn't even wearing any clothes.'"

Comments

Re:If iOS is a tiny segment, then why do you care?

[tomhudson]

It's the echo chamber effect. Same as the FBI hears about some subversive activity on campus. and puts 10 agents undercover, and so does the CIA, and so does DHS. Sure enough, they each separately report back that - wow - there seems to be some subversives on campus, so they each get 100 agents undercover. "The place is CRAWLING with subversives!" Next thing you know, "You can't walk 5 feet without seeing someone or something suspicious - people who don't fit in, blah blah blah".

All these people who got iPads so they can review them, or they can develop the "next big thing" ... and they're going to be obsolete in 3 months because everything we said about them was true.

Re:100m facebook users are iPhone based

[sexconker]

I find that figure remarkable being as there have only been about 50 million iPhones (counting all generations) sold worldwide, according to Apple's quarterly reports.

Is that it?
And Stevie thinks he can contend with Nintendo in the gaming space?

I just assumed it was in the hundreds of millions.
EL OH EL.

Re:Wrong number

[blair1q]

A high slope in a very small number doesn't count as a massive anything.

Look at it this way, if you call Apple growing mobile click share from 0.5 to 1.1% = a 120% growth "massive", then do you call Apple decreasing its competing technologies' click share from 99.5 to 98.9% = a -0.6% descrease "massive" as well, or would you call it "puny" as the rest of us would?

what a crock

[Trailer Trash]

iOS' market share is huge. Their market isn't the PC market - it's the touch screen market. Last I saw iOS owned more than 50% of the market. If you think it's just part of the larger "PC" market, you're not getting it.

nice troll (the article)

[smash]

If you don't want to abandon flash, then don't support the iDevices. There's only a tiny market you're ignoring, right?

Personally, i see no flash as a win. Yes, there are uses for it, but virtually anything flash can do, can be done in Javascript + HTML. Both of which are open and have freely available development tools. Flash no longer has a reason to exist, and is a huge lock-in to Adobe.

You'd think that the /. crowd would be in full support of this given the abysmal support linux has "enjoyed" from Adobe for the past decade or so, but it seems that a lot of them can't be pleased.

If you fall into the Linux fanboy camp, why does it matter to you what apple does? Buy an android device instead.

The reason the apple hardware/software combo is usually so slick is BECAUSE of restrictions like this. If this does not interest you, then you are not apple's target market.

Re:If iOS is a tiny segment, then why do you care?

[samkass]

If Steve can get an early H.264 foothold for HTML5 video service, a select few are going to make a lot of money.

...but not Steve. Apple barely has any skin in the h.264 game. He just chose it because it was the best.